You can be in a daze openly now! Because...

Review expert: Taozi National Psychological Counselor

Have you seen the trending search about Guangdong university libraries setting up a daze area recently? In the public's impression, a serious and quiet library should be a good place to learn culture and absorb knowledge, while daze is always associated with negative words such as dullness, laziness, and emptiness. How can the two be related? ! However, looking beyond this incident itself, "daze" has long become a reasonable and justifiable way of leisure since some time ago.

In fact, the recommendation of daydreaming as a leisure activity can be traced back to 2016. The National Health and Family Planning Commission launched the "5125" healthy lifestyle concept, in which the first 5 means daydreaming for five minutes every day. At that time, "daydreaming" became a little popular as a "deviant" and strange form of leisure.

A solemn and quiet library. Image source: Pixabay

Seeing this, besides being delighted or surprised at the rationalization of daydreaming, are you also curious about why daydreaming has made such a big comeback on Xianyu? Well, let’s take a closer look at the world of daydreaming today.

1What is daze?

Different people seem to have different definitions of daydreaming. Some people think that daydreaming is to let your mind go blank and think about nothing; while others think that daydreaming can also mean having a lot of thoughts, similar to daydreaming or distraction. At the same time, the daydreaming advocated above is a voluntary choice, and does not include distraction that occurs uncontrollably in life and work and reduces efficiency . So it seems that the definition of daydreaming is less than or equal to distraction? Don't worry, let's take a detour and take a look at the professional field of psychology.

Mind wandering is a professional term in psychology: when we are free or completing a task, our consciousness will unconsciously drift to some internal thoughts, imaginations or experiences that are irrelevant to the present. Different types of mind wandering can be divided into: thoughts that automatically pop up in daily life are called daydreams or spontaneous thinking, or mind wandering that distracts from the current task is called task-irrelevant thinking. In this way, no matter what definition you have for daydreaming, it can be considered as mind wandering with different orientations. In the big circle of mind wandering defined by psychology experts, you can occupy a place of your own and be the king.

Daze Image source: Pixabay

Why are the two people in a daze?

Before answering this question, let us first understand the relationship between unconscious activities and active resting-state brain energy consumption in psychological research. That is, the unconscious activities (intrinsic activities) in the brain at rest are still consuming a lot of energy, and these activities will continue even in deep sleep, so the brain's information processing is long-term and continuous .

Daydreaming can be seen as an uncontrolled spontaneous activity in a resting state. Like the unconscious activities mentioned above, it is a kind of information processing activity that the brain performs spontaneously. To exaggerate, when you realize that you are daydreaming with an empty mind, perhaps your unconscious activities have already gone out of your mind and have "made a big fuss" several times.

From the perspective of mind wandering, relevant research shows that mind wandering is related to specific areas in the brain, the most important of which is the default mode network. At the same time, it is also related to the integration of the hippocampus and the default mode network. It is a seemingly simple but actually complex problem that requires long-term exploration.

In addition, some external environmental factors also affect the occurrence of mind wandering, such as age, fatigue level, emotional experience, state of consciousness, work pressure, proficiency, etc.

3What are the benefits of daydreaming?

People always have the stereotype that mind wandering affects the efficiency of task completion and even mental health. However, with the continuous progress of psychological research and the proposal of a series of related theoretical explanations, the benefits of mind wandering have gradually surfaced: in general, it has some positive adaptive functions, including better monitoring of the external environment, looking forward to personal goals, discovering oneself, improving creativity, promoting decision-making and reducing negative emotions.

For example, relevant journal reports indicate that daydreaming can help you concentrate, activate brain cells, relieve anxiety, and enhance memory and creativity. Daily daydreaming can reduce anxiety and depression by 25%.

However, daydreaming does not necessarily mean relaxing the brain. For children or the elderly, excessive daydreaming may also be a sign of psychological or mental illness, and a distress signal from the body!

4. What are the recommended methods for daydreaming?

1. The method of daydreaming without blinking. Try to keep your eyes open as much as possible. After a while, regain your focus, move your body, and experience the joy of being in a trance for a long time.

2. Breathing daze method. When dazed, focus on taking deep breaths in your abdomen, and do it slowly and repeatedly. This will reduce stress and increase the oxygen supply to the brain.

Image source: Pixabay

From this perspective, daydreaming is actually quite similar to mindfulness and meditation. What else do you know about the correct way to daydream?